Sprotoften activity centre

The Sprotoften cooperative housing association in Nyborg has a new activity centre. This is part of a general plan for the Sprotoften housing project and is home to a number of social housing projects, as well as AOF (the Danish Workers' Educational Association) and Café Danehof, which offers home-made meals every day. It was built using funds from Realdania's Det Gode Bolig Liv project and Landsbyggefonden.

Troldtekt, Sprotoften
Photo: Helene Høyer Mikkelsen, architect MAA

The new centre is located in the park outside a large 1950s brick apartment block. It forms an attractive and inviting facility which generates activity in the park and where people can access the café or eat their lunch on the patio. Large amphitheatre-style steps encourage even more outdoor activity, such as games, theatre and music, and also serve as an architectural link between the park and the centre’s interesting planted roof.

From the entrance, visitors access a building where large skylights provide a brightly lit atmosphere. They are led along a gently curving wall, clad with vertical wooden strips, to the café. From here they can continue out into the park. On one side of the corridor there is a large meeting room, which can be divided into smaller rooms for teaching or other activities.

Architect Søren Rasmussen wanted the gently sloping ceiling to appear calm and aesthetically pleasing. Consequently, Troldtekt panels without bevelled edges were chosen to minimise elements on the ceiling and provide an homogeneous a surface as possible. The same panels have been used throughout the activity centre, serving to provide good acoustics and as a cohesive element throughout.